THIS newspaper was established in 1843 to take part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.” One of the chief ways in which intelligence presses forward is through innovation, which is now recognised as one of the most important contributors to economic growth. Innovation, in turn, depends on the creative individuals who dream up new ideas and turn them into reality.

The Economist recognises these talented people through its annual Innovation awards, presented in eight fields: bioscience, computing and telecommunications, energy and the environment, social and economic innovation, business-process innovation, consumer products, a flexible “no boundaries” category, and the corporate use of innovation. The awards were presented by Tom Standage, digital editor of The Economist and editor of Technology Quarterly, at a ceremony at BAFTA in London on November 15th. And the winners were:

• Bioscience: Napoleone Ferrara of Genentech, for research into blood-vessel formation that led to new drugs to fight cancer (Avastin) and curb age-related vision loss (Lucentis).

• Computing and telecommunications: Jack Dangermond, president of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) and John Hanke, vice-president of product management at Google, for pioneering and popularising the use of geographical information systems, otherwise known as computerised maps such as Google Earth.

• Consumer products: Gary Burrell, chairman emeritus and Min Kao, chairman and chief executive of Garmin, for devices making the Global Positioning System (GPS) available to consumers. The company was founded in 1989 to extend GPS beyond military use.

• Energy and the environment: Yet-Ming Chiang, professor of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his work to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries. Batteries based on his nanophosphate materials are used in power tools, hybrid buses and electric cars.

• No boundaries: Elon Musk, chief executive and chief designer, SpaceX, for achievements in private space transportation. SpaceX was the first private company to send a spacecraft into low-earth orbit and return it safely to earth, and it now has a cargo-supply contract with NASA for the International Space Station.

• Process and service innovation: Marc Benioff, chairman and chief executive of Salesforce.com, for pioneering web-hosted enterprise software under a “software as a service” model. Instead of installing software, users simply access it through a web browser.

• Social and economic innovation: Greg Allgood and Philip Souter of Procter & Gamble for developing a simple purification process to provide drinking water in developing countries.

• Corporate use of innovation: Google. From its origins as a search engine, it has become an innovative leader in many other areas including online advertising, web-based e-mail, online maps and mobile-phone operating systems.